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I am dog person. I can’t imagine coming home to a house without having an excited canine there to greet me. While some people ooh and aww over babies, I’m the person who will get overly excited about a new puppy or newly adopted dog. Let’s face it, dogs are awesome and many of us couldn’t live without ours.

That being said, this week’s give away is a pair of tickets to Fall Harvest Brewfest, the annual fundraiser for Animal House, a no-kill dog shelter in Fort Collins, Colorado. Animal House specializes in second chances. They obtain dogs from other shelters; dogs that have been slated for euthanasia.

This is the 3rd Annual Fall Harvest Brewfest and it’s being held at Drake Center in Fort Collins on October 15, 2011. There will be over 20 craft breweries in attendance as well as several micro-distilleries (including my personal favorite, Dancing Pines Distillery, in Loveland). To satisfy your growling tummy, there will be craft-beer inspired food pairings served throughout the evening.

Draco is a 3-yr-old shepherd mix looking for his forever home. Learn more at www.animalhousehelp.org.

So here’s the deal folks, enter to win a pair of tickets to Fall Harvest Brewfest here by telling me your best dog tale. I know it’s a little work, but it can be simple. For example, our German Shepherd likes to talk to the cat. Here’s another, when our German Shepherd pees in snow she covers it up – true story! We have no idea why she does this, but we find it highly amusing.

I will pick a winner sometimes on Friday afternoon (October 7, 2011) – we have guests coming to town, so I can’t give you a specific time, because I won’t stick with it. Just be sure to have your entry in by noon on Friday.

If you don’t win, I encourage you to buy a ticket to this event. Tickets can be purchased at www.fallharvestbrewfest.com. Tickets are $35 and include your night of fun and the warm fuzzy feeling that you drank for a great cause. You can also join the Fall Harvest Brewfest and the Animal House on Facebook.

16 Comments

When I adopted a kitten who was taken away from her mother too early, my Australian Shepherd, Shelby, would let her nurse. I would find them curled up in the corner together with the kitten latched on.

My two terriers love playing in the snow. Whenever we get a few inches on the ground, out they go! They love to dig tunnels, roll around, and jump like kangaroos. I am so glad we get early and late snow here in CO!

My dog Dakota loves to go fishing. I practice catch and release when I fly fish and he tries to catch the fish in his mouth when I put them back in the water. And when we lake fish and have our catch on a stringer, he puts his face under water (blowing air bubbles out his nose) and takes the tails of the fish gingerly in his teeth, then pulls them back on to shore. Smart dog….he knows we may run out of beef jerky and will need to eat those fish later.

I got Buddy from rescue almost five years ago and have said a prayer of thanks every day since (well, except maybe the day he broke a bottle of Scotch trying to get into the trashcan). Buddy lives for walks and this time of year gets extra exercise chasing grasshoppers which he can snag out of the air in mid-jump. Watching him jump, twist, and turn chasing after grasshoppers makes walks entertaining for sure!

We were camping with friends one time… Our two mutts n their German shepherd along for the trip. For some reason our friends thought Pete was the aggressive one (when really we all know it’s Molly who wears the pants, so to speak) so to win over Petie the guy-friend pulled out all the stops… And gave him bacon. They’ve been best friends ever since 😉

My silly girl……while sitting on my lap and petting her, she will try to bite at /pull the tiny fine hairs on my forearm, she is ever so gental using her front teeth and so very funny! What in the world does she think she is doing?? Dogs, gotta love em!

Don’t know if this is my favorite dog story, but true none-the-less. After getting our German Sheppard mix Captain on a Friday from a couple in Berthoud I let him out on Monday morning while I showered only to discover he had jumped the fence. After getting dressed and packing up my baby son, we headed out in the neighborhood to look for him. After about 20 minutes with no luck we returned home.

As I packed our stuff for the day, the phone rang. It was the previous “owners” asking if we were missing our dog. He ran about 5 miles, as the crow flies, in under an hour. He ran back to the couple we got him from. Amazing!

Even as frustrating as it was that day, it continues to amaze me, the abilities our dogs have.

I haven’t had a pooch since I was a kid and now I’m more of a cat person, but hmmm, let me think…
We had a toy poodle named Pandora who almost died 3 times so her bark wasn’t very normal. When we moved to a new apartment the neighbors were relieved to finally see the dog as they thought we were leaving a crying child home alone and were ready to call the authorities on us. Smartest, cutest, most loving dog ever. *sniff*

We had a Boxer who died of a brain tumor. He was all white with a brown spot over one eye. Our sons who were 5, 3 and 1 at the time grieved over their loss. They asked daily – “is today the day we will get another white dog with brown spots.” We found a German Short-Hair Pointer rescue in Montana who had a gun-shy bird-hunting dog ready to go to a new home. We drove to pick him up to have him on Thanksgiving. Our boys were thrilled and wanted to name him the same name as our Boxer. He’s perfect for our family. Even though he’s a bird dog, he allows our backyard chickens to stand on him. We were thankful to get our rescued dog on Thanksgiving.

Our Rottweiler, Raspberry, would hide her head under the step when she got in trouble–I think she truly thought she was invisible even though there was probably 5 pounds of dog hidden and 99 pounds of dog showing. She was always completely shocked when we would touch her when her head was under the step (“How in the world did they know I was HERE??”). I have a lot of dog stories but that one makes me laugh every time.

My life changed about a year and a half ago. I was due to leave Memphis, TN in about a month for my last year of school at Colorado State University. When I was out running errands one afternoon, I saw a stray dog, looked like a pitbull, on the road and just couldn’t help myself from picking him up and taking him to the Humane Society. He was skin and bones. His head was huge and he was incredibly dirty and timid. Once I got to the Humane Society, I took the little guy inside and the staff took him in. I left and still couldn’t shake the thoughts of this little dog from my head. So I called about 2 weeks after. It turned out that he had been beaten so badly and probably left for dead. The assumption is that he was raised to be a fighter and once they discovered he wasn’t full pit, they tried to kill him. Well, I just couldn’t fill the empty spot inside of me for that little dog. So I went back and wanted to see him! He was so friendly and sweet, almost like he knew that I had helped him. A week later, I adopted him. He has changed my life and opened my heart in ways I can’t even explain. His name now is Winston Bradley Theodore Davis II. He wears a bow-tie every day and cuddles with me every night. I am so blessed to have a dog like Winston. Although I saved his life, he saved my heart.

Thank you to everyone for the wonderful stories. Dogs make our lives just a little bit sweeter. A couple of your stories got me all choked up!

The random winner was KAROL and she has been contacted via email. Thank you to everyone who entered and please consider purchasing a ticket to this event, because it’s a fundraiser for a great organization.